Our death penalty not bad, just slow

A letter from William Larsen in the July 1 Daily Herald said the death penalty is costly and ineffective. I disagree. What is costly is the way we handle capital punishment.

We let people sentenced to death languish on death row for decades. That is ridiculous, and that is what costs so much - not the death penalty.

Israel provides the same kind of safeguards we do, but total elapsed time from conviction to execution can be only a day or two. In the case of Adolph Eichmann, a Nazi holocaust "mastermind," he was convicted early in the morning, his appeal was heard later than morning, and his appeal to the Supreme Court was heard in the afternoon. His conviction was upheld, so he was executed before the day was out. That was more humane than keeping him sitting on death row for 20 years would have been.

In such a case, capital punishment permanently removes the convicted criminal from the gene pool and ensures that he will never commit a crime again. There is no better deterrent than that. Also, we need to keep in mind that punishment of criminals - not rehabilitation - is a primary function of government. Rehabilitation is fine, if it can be accomplished, but recidivism rates will not go away.

The goal is to protect society from the criminal, not the other way around. When capital punishment is ruled out, the entire spectrum of punishments is scaled back and society is ill-served.

Peter G. Malone

St. Charles